Lions
by illocust
Summary: The Magical Space Robot Lions unexpectedly drop the Robot part of that description in the middle of the night. The team tries to figure out what's going on.
1. Red And Black

Keith didn't know what had woken him at first. He was warm and comfortable. Shiro was at his back, even if they weren't actively cuddling at the moment. No alarms were blaring, calling them to defend the Castle. The room was quiet except for the sound of their breathing. Shiro's slow and calm with peaceful dreams for once, and another….someone else was breathing in front of him.

Keith's eyes flew open. Two giant slitted pupils stared back at him. He didn't think. He just acted. Slamming his pillow into the snout of the creature, he quickly scrambled backwards, slipping on his bed partner, as he tried to get some room to make another move.

He didn't know if Shiro had been woken by the same thing he had or if his hasty attempt for distance had startled him awake, but suddenly there was a human hand on his chest and he was shoved behind the bulk of the larger paladin. He felt sharp relief as Shiro's Galra arm came to life in glowing purple between them and the beast. His weapons were on the floor in a pile across the room. There was a half formed plan to try and wrap the thing's head up in the sheets and make a run for his bayard, but he felt his skin was safer for not having to implement it.

The light from Shiro's arm startled the creature into backing up and baring a mouth full of sharp teeth in a hiss. The distance gave Keith his first chance to get a clear look since waking. Honestly, it reminded him of the big cats he'd seen in the zoo on a field trip once. Sleek tail, big paws, nearly as long as he was tall, and ears laid back in anger, if it hadn't been some shade of red he might have thought it was from Earth.

Whatever it was, it was recovering its nerve and started to approach them again. Keith yanked the sheets clear, as he heard Shiro let out a dark nearly feral snarl. Before the creature could get back in range for either side to attack, another larger black one seemed to materialize from the shadows beside it. The new one grabbed the back of the red creature's neck in its maw, and yanked it away from them towards the opposite wall. Keith could only stare, as the larger beast let go of the smaller only to interpose itself between them and it.

It was the fun house mirror quality of the whole situation that finally tipped him off to what was going on. The bigger one was only a half foot taller than its friend. Though it looked wary of them, it didn't put off any of the blatant 'I'm going to attack you' body language like the other one. The smaller one looked pissed at its treatment, but it didn't try to push its way past to get at them. It just glared at him from around the black one's legs, in much the same was Keith was looking around Shiro's back at it.

No, it couldn't be, "Shiro," Keith started hesitantly, "Is that the lions?"

Keith didn't get long to feel stupid for voicing his passing thought. Shiro stiffened in front of him. He couldn't see his face, but he was quiet when he asked, "Black?"

The now quite obviously Black lion perked up at Shiro's voice, letting out a happy sound at getting recognized. There was a silent moment of shock, then the purple light illuminating the room went out as Shiro deactivated his arm. Black waited a minute more, then padded across the floor and bumped heads with her paladin. Shiro let out a soft surprised laugh, "Hey girl, don't suppose you could tell me what's going on," He asked. Black just stared at him, "Guess that'd make life too simple, eh. Oh well." Shiro scratched behind Black's ears as he turned to smile at Keith.

Shiro and Black's violence free de-escalation only served to highlight the occupants of the room who had yet to kiss and make up. Red had followed Black across the room and parked herself a little behind her. She was still angry. She'd stopped showing off her fangs, but her ears were still laid back and she was specifically looking at Keith. Right, he had sort of whacked her in the face with a pillow. Though, he thinks he was a bit justified considering she decided to introduce herself by looming over him while he slept. They were pretty even in his book. Keith crossed his arms and stared right back.

He really wasn't all that shocked at the mirrored way Black broke off to nudge Red, while Shiro started giving Keith his 'you're better than this' look. He saw it a lot when Lance egged him into doing something stupid. Shiro had no room to talk. He knew the sorts of things the man had done on a dare before.

"She started it," Keith explained. Okay sure, he sounded like he was two, but it was dark'o'clock in the morning and he'd been woken by being scared half to death. He was allowed to be petty.

"Seriously?" Shiro asked, raising an eyebrow at him incredulously. When Keith didn't even bother to break his staring contest with Red, Shiro just sighed and gave him a kiss to the forehead, "Fine, not my lion. When you're done, catch up. I'm going to see if anyone else knows what's going on." Shiro climbed out of bed and headed over to where he stored his armor. Black looked from Red to him and then turned to follow Shiro across the room. He felt incredibly judged, and maybe a bit silly.

Apparently Red felt the same. She let out a low growl as Black left. She didn't like being made to look like the immature one either. The connection that normally let him communicate with his lion was muted for some reason, probably to do with her current condition, but it still felt like a mutual decision to move on before either of their prides was wounded any farther. They broke eye contact, and Keith followed Shiro in getting dressed.


	2. Blue

Lance ended up being the first person they found, or more accurately, Lance's scream prompted them to run to his room first. As the door slid open to reveal his bedroom, Keith dearly wished he had a camera to record the scene. The Blue Paladin was sprawled face first on the floor beside his bed, one foot still on the mattress where it had gotten tangled with the sheets. Blue was pinning him to the ground with her paws and superior weight, looking extremely proud of herself.

Lance reached out a hand to them, "Guys, help! This thing is going to eat me!" He shouted. Keith lost it. He didn't care if it made him a bad person, he doubled over laughing. "What the hell man!?" Lance yelled.

"That thing is Blue," Shiro explained, when Keith couldn't stop his laughter. He swore he saw the corners of the older man's mouth twitch as he spoke.

"What?" Lance said, dumbfounded, craning his neck around to try and look Blue in the face.

Shiro walked over and tapped the happy lion on the side of the head, "Come on Blue, let him up," He said. She shoved off Lance and waited expectantly as he sat up. Keith couldn't help noticing she was a bit bigger than Red. Nowhere near as massive as Black, but a couple inches taller easily. "We're not sure what's going on yet, but all our lions seemed to have turned into actual lions sometime during the night." Shiro said, "Did you see anything that might help explain?"

Lance dusted himself off while looking Blue up and down, "Um, no, not really," He said. He reached out hesitantly for his lion, and Blue met him half way, rubbing her head against his hand lovingly, "Wow, it really is you isn't it," He said a bit awed, Blue let out a purr in confirmation. Lance smiled, then seemed to remember that Shiro was waiting on his report, "I was sleeping, then suddenly there was this big thwump in my bed and Blue was standing over me. I tried to get away, but she tackled me. Which, what was up with that?" Blue didn't give him a response, just seemed to finally get bored of being petted and started wandering towards the door to where the other lions were looking in.

Keith long since recovered from his laughing fit decided to chime in as Blue pushed past him, "Red didn't hop into bed with us, but she was standing right beside it staring at me when I woke. Maybe she just wanted to wake you up?" Or maybe Blue had just been trying to make Lance scream and flail because it was funny. That's what he would have done if he'd been in that position. Keith really didn't know the blue lion well enough to tell if her sense of humor lined up with his, though.

Shiro looked between Lance and Keith considering, and then glanced over to where the lions were exchanging friendly greeting headrubs with each other. He seemed to reach a decision, "Alright, so we still don't know why this happened or how the lions got into our rooms. Though, Blue's presence confirms every lion is being affected. Lance, get your clothes on. We need to collect Pidge and Hunk, before going to see if Allura knows what's happening." He ordered. Lance nodded.

Keith waited outside with Shiro and the lions as Lance dressed. He was a bit surprised how well Red got along with Black and Blue. Happily receiving and giving affection to both. He sometime forgot that she wasn't just an extension of himself. The other lions were her family, she known them for a minimum of 10,000 years. Of course, she was more open with them than Keith was with anyone but Shiro. She wasn't Keith. She was her own person. He really should keep that in mind.

Blue broke off from the other two and crouched against the wall by the door. Soon after, it slid open, and Lance walked out. Keith wished again he had a camera. "Why are you guys stari-" Blue tackled her Paladin back to the floor.


	3. Green

They didn't have to track Pidge down, she contacted them. They'd just managed to convince Blue to get off Lance, when their coms came to life. "Is anyone there, I think I have a small emergency," Pidge's voice filtered through. She sounded worried, but not like she feared for her life.

Shiro was busy helping Lance off the ground, so Keith answered, "Let me guess, you woke up to a green lion in your bedroom?"

"No? I mean there was a green lion, but I wasn't in my bedroom or sleeping." She replied, "I was down in the hangar working on Green, when suddenly my computer readings went crazy. Then there was this huge whoosh of wind. I turned around, and Green was gone! Well not gone, she was just smaller, way smaller and not a robot anymore. She is a real lion now! Except she has green fur, but she's a perfectly average lion otherwise. I scanned her and checked against the Castle databases." Pidge was talking a mile a minute. Her excitement at the development was palpable. If he could have seen her, he's sure she would have been pulling up all the work she'd been doing on her computer to show to them.

Shiro activated his own com, "The same has happened to Red, Blue, and Black. We're heading to check on Hunk and Yellow now. Meet us on the bridge with Green and you can show us what you found out." He said, waving Keith and Lance to start heading towards Hunk's room.

"Well see, that's where the small emergency comes in, " Pidge said, "Green sorta ran away." Keith stopped. One of the lions left? For some reason, he'd been thinking that they were stuck by their paladin's sides. Maybe because Red had been following close to his heels since changing forms, if she could have left, he'd figured she would have taken off by now. She was probably sticking close to Black.

Shiro must have asked for clarification, because Pidge continued, "After she changed, she really didn't want to stay still. She kept chasing my tools around the floor and batting my wires. I barely got her to stand for the scans. Then when I went to call you guys, she was playing with my helmet and wouldn't give it back. I had to rig up this laser, so she'd let it go and chase the light instead, but when I turned it off she spotted something in the hall outside and took off. She was too fast, by the time I got out there she was gone. I don't know where she is." Pidge was starting to sound panicked by the end. Keith couldn't blame her. He knew that feeling.

"She's going to be okay, Pidge. The Castle is as safe a location for her as possible." Shiro soothed, Keith resisted pointing out how the Castle had tried to kill them all in the past. He did have some impulse control, "Set something up to monitor the hangar, to let you know if she comes back, then meet us on the bridge like originally planned. We'll keep an eye out for her in the meantime, and we'll bring her up there if we see her. You can try to locate her using the bridge equipment until we arrive. Worst case, Allura can sense the lions' locations."

The plan seemed to calm her back down, her voice was steady when she responded, "Alright, I'll see you guys soon."


	4. Yellow

They don't spot Green on the way to Hunk's room. Keith is pretty certain at this point that the lions understand them when they are spoken too, but he's equally certain that Black is the only one that takes them even semi-seriously. She is making a token effort to keep everyone together, after all.

Blue got bored with trying to convince Lance to play and took to harassing the other lions' tails, soon after they started walking. Red quickly got annoyed and took off after her with a vengeance. He really hopes a mild mauling won't do damage to their normal robot forms. Lance is going to end up blaming him if Blue gets damaged. Black held off for a bit, but when Red and Blue started literally running circles around her, she ended up in the mad chase too. Only Shiro's occasional call to her, prevented all three from disappearing into the bowels of the Castle without their paladins.

When they reach Hunk's door, Black is trying to pull the smallest lion off of Blue's back at the end of the hall. Shiro is walking towards them, trying to convince the lions to fight a little closer to the group. Keith think's Red is actually enjoying herself now instead of just trying to kill Blue, so he ignores the scene and hits the open button for the door.

He'd been expecting to come into a mini-warzone, with Hunk armed on one side of the room and a misidentified Yellow growling on the other. If not that, he at least wouldn't have been shocked to find Hunk examining Yellow for causation like Pidge had done. What he didn't expect was to find Hunk passed out on his bed sleeping with Yellow sprawled at the foot of the bed doing the same. He couldn't tell which of them was snoring more.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Lance's voice broke in from behind him, "Why am I the only one that gets woken up with a jump scare?" He complained loudly. Loudly enough to wake up the sleepers, as it turned out.

"Snork-huh, what?", Hunk sat up quickly, peering at them through squinted eyes, "Why are you guys in my room?" He asked blearily.

"We here to get you and Yellow," Keith explained, gesturing to the end of the bed. He didn't say something pointless like 'don't panic'. That would have only caused Hunk to raise his guard.

Hunk turned to look, then practically flew out the bed. Between one blink and the next Hunk was suddenly behind Lance and pointing at his lion over his friend's shoulder, "What is that! Why is it my room!" He yelled.

"She's Yellow, your lion," Keith said, stepping out from between them. Yellow yawned and stretched, then ambled over to sit in front of Lance, "Red, Black, and Blue are out in the hallway, and Green is somewhere." He waved vaguely in the air to illustrate that could be anywhere in the Castle.

Hunk and Yellow stared at each other for a second, then Hunk looked out the door where Black was now trying to fend off a team up attack by Red and Blue. "Oh," He said simply.

Shiro poked his head into the room, "Everything good?" He asked.

"We're good," Keith confirmed.

"Let's get going then. We don't want to leave Pidge alone in the control room too long. I really don't want to see what she'll do to the Castle systems, if left to her own devices," Shiro said, backing out and heading off. Keith shrugged past Lance and Hunk, to follow him. Hunk was taking everything pretty well all considered, and Lance would make sure that he didn't stare long enough to get left behind. His presence here wasn't necessary.


End file.
